Saturday, January 31, 2015

Ruso
must be getting old; he keeps losing things.
But this time it’s something really big – his clerk, Candidus. Candidus is also the nephew of Ruso’s close
friend, Albanus, who is on his way for a visit.

Perhaps
it is connected to the latest rumor that’s been spreading throughout the
garrison like wildfire: that one of the native Briton boys claims he saw a soldier put a body in the wall which the Roman army is in the process of building. But the rumor doesn’t say where or when, so
even if it’s true, no one has any idea where in the wall to look. And only a fool would want to start tearing
down random parts of the emperor’s wall.

Besides, Candidus wouldn’t be the first man to just up and walk away
from the army. Nor the first one to fall
prey to the restless locals. Heck, just
recently they strung a soldier up by his feet, naked, and let the local bugs
and critters nip at his flesh all night.
Hmm. Someone’s gonna pay for that
crazy bit of mischief.

Still, Albanus will be sore disappointed if Candidus isn’t found by the
time he arrives. So Ruso better do some nosing
around.

What’s To Like...

Tabula Rasais the latest installment in the Medicus series, and takes us to a new
area of 2nd-century Roman-occupied Britain – the northern limit of the Empire’s reach in Britain - Hadrian's Wall.
As such, there is a greater focus on the life of the native tribes,
which I liked a lot. Ruso (and the reader) are among Tilla’s people now, and we
become acquainted with their gods, their psyche, and their way of life, even as
they struggle to naintain their language and cultural identity. The highlight of all this is the Festival of Samhain, which was a real delight to experience with Ruso.

As
a Historical Fiction novel, I thought this was Ruth Downie’s best book
yet. The linguistic modernisms (“mate”,
“ain’t”, etc.) seemed “smoother” and less frequent, and if there
were any anachronisms, I didn’t spot them.
A bunch of new characters are introduced, many whom I suspect will play
recurring roles. Senecio is particularly
memorable.

As
a Mystery novel, this felt more like a Police
Procedural than the other books I’ve read in this series. Ruso investigates a pair of disappearances,
and frankly, doesn’t have much to work with in either case. I l like Police
Procedurals, so for me this was a plus.
But readers looking for a whodunit may find Ruso’s methodical ways, with the frequent red herrings and dead ends, feel like the story is sometimes spinning in its
tracks.

There’s
still a decent amount of action, however.
And Downie’s trademark gentle-yet-wry humor keeps the storyline fresh
and interesting. Tilla is hit with some
personal revelations, which was kewl and didn’t detract at all from the fact
that I am not reading this series in order.
As always, this is a standalone novel, with an ending that wraps up all
the plot threads quite nicely.

Kewlest New Word...

Hayrick(n.)
: another word for “haystack”.

Excerpts...

“Candidus,” the
watch captain repeated. “Where is he?”

“Haven’t seen
him, sir.”

“Not ever,”
suggested the watch captain, “or just not lately?”

The man scratched
his head, as if this were too subtle a question for one who had only just woken
up.

“He arrived
several days ago,” Ruso prompted. “He
was assigned to this tent.”

“Ah,” said the
man, apparently enlightened. “Him.”(loc. 1020)

“Albanus knows
nothing of people,” she told him, pointing one slender foot in the air and
hiding it inside a sock. “He spends too
long with words and writing. He thinks I
am bad for you.”

“I’m sure he’s
never said that.”

“He thinks I lead
you into trouble.”

“You do.”(loc. 1855)

Kindle Details...

Tabula
Rasasells for $9.99 at Amazon, and, since it is
the newest release in this series, is understandably priced the highest. The other Medicus books range in price from $1.99(for the first novel) to $9.59.

“You’ve been so much more entertaining since you met Tilla and
adopted the native tendency to overdramatize.” (loc. 1658)

I
enjoyed Tabula Rasa as much as, if not a bit more than any of the other three books I’ve read in this series. I can’t say whether this is due to the author's style and storytelling improving with each book, or if I’m just developing a better feel for what
she’s trying to do with the series. I
will say that Tabula Rasa felt more
polished, and that’s a good sign for things to come in this series.

I admit it - I'm now hooked on Ruso and Tilla, and will probably read Terra Incognita(Book 2 in the series) as soon as it becomes available at my local
digital library. This whole series is
highly recommended.

8½ Stars. Here's hoping Ruso and Tilla continue to find themselves moving to new parts of the Roman Empire. It will be unsettling to them, but a treat for readers.

Saturday, January 24, 2015

Oh,
the possibilities of genetic engineering.
You can manipulate the genes of a chimpanzee to make something bigger,
smarter, less hairy, and not so …well… chimp-looking. But be careful to do these modifications to a limited
extent so there’s no question that this new creature is still an animal, not a human. To emphasize that distinction, let's call them “Sims”.

At
best, a sim will be a pet. Or a work animal that can
be trained to do certain menial jobs – maids, caddies, unskilled laborers,
etc. Since they’re less than human,
they will legally be viewed as property. Plus an exceptionally cheap labor source.
And since the company SimGen is the only company that knows how to make this "product", they are sitting on a corporate goldmine.

But take care, SimGen. Because for a new species in
a new environment, adaptation can be a rapid process, no matter how much effort
you make to keep every Sim docile, neutered, and identical. You might be surprised at how fast your
cranially-challenged critters can smarten up.

What’s To Like...

The book is fast-paced, without any slow spots.
The requisite info dumps about genetic engineering are smoothly blended into the
storyline. The chapters are short, and
the whole narrative is well-structured; the tension builds slowly and
inexorably to a suspenseful conclusion.

I
liked the protagonist – Patrick Sullivan.
He is by trade a lawyer, but his simple legal motion pulls him into the violence and intrigue
when things quickly escalate. Yet his
character is believable; when the rough stuff unfolds, don’t expect him to go all
Rambo on the baddies.

There are a bunch of mysteries for the reader to mull over. What is SIRG?
What does “kree-“ mean? Why is the
one co-owner of SimGen acting so weird? And
most important of all, who the heck is Zero?
FWIW, I felt sure I had his identity pegged. I was wrong.

There
are some cusswords and a couple adult situations, but nothing lurid. The bad guys and the good guys play a keen
cat-&-mouse game with each other, with each getting some surprise shots
in. There’s a smidgen of romance, but
not enough to scare off male readers. Sims is a standalone novel with a good
ending. There are a few loose ends that
could be developed into a sequel, but frankly it’s not a necessity.

Kewlest New Word...

Pogue(n.)
: military slang for non-combat, staff, and other read-echelon or support units
who don’t have to undergo the stresses that the infantry does. (pejorative, and pronounced "pog")

Others : Aborning(v.); Lumpen(adj.)

Excerpts...

“Life is
chemistry, nothing more, nothing less.
When the chemicals are reacting, life goes on. When the reactions stop, so does life. That’s it, and that’s all it is. I am a collection of reacting chemicals; so
are you; so are sims. To view existence
as anything else is mysticism, romanticism, a myriad of other isms, but it isn’t
real. Only the chemistry is real. Everything else is self-delusion.”(loc. 764)

“Duke?” Ponytail
said. He placed the inoculator kit on
the coffee table next to the recorder and retrieved the pistol from under his
suit coat. “Duke, are you okay?”

No answer from
the bedroom.

Ponytail edged
toward the doorway, pointing his pistol at Romy’s head. “I don’t know what kind of shit’s going down
here, but if anything untoward happens, you go first.”

The first thought
that ran through Patrick’s mind was, Untoward? Did he really say untoward?(loc.
5408)

Kindle Details...

Sims
sells for $7.99 at Amazon. F. Paul
Wilson has dozens of other books available for the Kindle, ranging in price
from $2.99
to $9.99,
including a slew of novels from his Repairman Jack
series.

“A sim union? Have you been
nipping at the aftershave, Tome?” (loc.
210)

Besides
all the thrills and spills in Sims, there is a fascinating sociological
question raised : How sapient must a given species be before we talk to them instead of
killing and eating them?

Science Fiction has looked at this issue as well. H. Beam Piper made it the central theme of
his Little Fuzzy books (one of which is
reviewed here). But it also applies
in the real world with species like the dolphins, whom some researchers claim are just as
intelligent and sapient as humans.
Indeed, since we continue to catch and dine upon them, a case may be
made that dolphins are more highly-evolved than we are.

Food for thought; pun intended. Sims is a worthy addition to the discussion, and
perhaps more timely than the Sci-Fi books, given that the field of genetic engineering is
at hand and will offer us mind-boggling possibilities in the very near future.

8 Stars. I didn’t really resonate with the characters,
but that’s just a personal reaction. Add
½ star if Meerm’s travails get you all choked
up.

Sunday, January 18, 2015

The Wicked Queen’s magic mirror (“Mirror,
mirror, on the wall…”) has been hacked., and now her data is missing and the
mirror doesn’t work worth a crap. Not
that the Wicked Queen would understand what a ‘hacker’ is, but she has caught
one of the miscreants (they were all just kids), and the pair of them set out to make
things right again.

They’d
better hurry though. Some of the ‘real
world’ seems to be seeping into the land of Fairytales. And some of the fairyland characters seem to
be not quite right.

But who are those funny-looking men in black armor carrying big swords? They go by some weird name. “Samurai”, whatever those might be.

What’s To Like...

The title gives you a good idea of what to
expect in this novel. There are a bunch
of fairytale characters herein – Snow White, the Three Little Pigs, the Big Bad
Wolf, Little Red Riding Hood, etc. But Seven
Samurai are pulled from a great 1950’s movie of the same name, and you will
also find characters from Literature (Frankenstein’s monster), Nursery Rhymes (Jack and Jill),
Disney flicks (Pinocchio),
and real life (the Brothers Grimm).

The
storyline is more coherent than usual for a Tom Holt book. This is probably because the
reader will already be familiar with most of the characters. That can be viewed as either a plus or a minus,
depending on how much you enjoy Holt's standard plotline mayhem.

Similarly,
since these are for the most part already-established toons, there isn’t a lot
of character development per se. But it
is fascinating to watch Holt gradually “twist” their personalities. The Wicked Queen gets nicer; Snow White becomes
a bit of a b*tch. The Big Bad Wolf starts
developing a heroic streak; the three pigs begin to squabble among
themselves.

The fable spoofery is seasoned by an underlying theme about computer geekery and what a PITA it can be.
“Mirrors” here is a spoof of "Microsoft Windows”, and when’s the
last time you saw MS-DOS play a major part in a novel? The ending felt a bit contrived, but it
does tie things up nicely. This is a
standalone novel, and contains cuss words.

Not all houses in
big woods are quaint or charming, or even safe.
Some of them are piled to the rafters with stolen car radios, others
house illegal stills used for making moonshine (so called, they say, because
one carelessly dropped match could lead to a fireball that’d be visible from
the Moon). Some of them are the lairs of
big bad wolves dressed as Victorian grandmothers, not that that’s anybody’s
business but their own.(pg. 1, and opening
paragraphs)

”(T)he shadowy
figure stepped out of the forest into the clearing. Not an encouraging sight for a nervous pig;
whoever he was, he felt the need to dress from head to toe in shiny black
armour, wear a helmet with a mask visor and a huge neckpiece and carry a
whacking great two-handed sword. Either
the Jehovah’s Witnesses in this neighbourhood had abandoned the Mr-Nice-Guy
tactic, or here came trouble. (pg.
172)

“Life (is) a bit like a frog sandwich; some parts of it (are)
better than others. (pg.
156)

Those
readers who are also Jasper Fforde fans will note a striking similarity between
the templates he uses and the one Holt uses here.
Indeed Snow White and the Seven Samurai
could be described as Fforde’s “Nursery Crime” series set in his “Thursday Next”
world.

While
it is true that SW&TSS(1999) was published prior to any of
Fforde’s books (his first one, The Eyre Affair, came out in 2001), I doubt
this is a matter of literary plagiarism.
Injecting the real world into a fairytale setting is an obvious and
time-honored literary device. Who Framed Roger Rabbit explored it way back in 1988,
and heck, if you’re old enough to have watched the Rocky & Bullwinkle show
as a kid, you’ll remember Fractured Fairy Tales
and Aesop and Son using the same motif.

Snow White and the Severn Samurai, replete
with Tom Holt’s wit, dry humor, and plentiful puns, is a light, enjoyable
read. There aren’t many storylines that
can be described as both complex and easy-to-follow, but this is one of them.

8 Stars. Add
½ star if you know who Jasper Fforde is, and are
hooked on his books.

Monday, January 12, 2015

Oh to be able to be in two places at
once! Special agent Jack McClure’s
protégé, Alli Carson, daughter of an ex-POTUS, has just gone missing in
Washington DC, and at least one witness says it was an abduction.

Jack should really drop everything and rush
to DC to help find Alli, but he’s on assignment in Russia – helping to smuggle
a top crime boss out of the country. And
that crime boss’s granddaughter just happens to be McClure’s lover, so he’s
motivated beyond mere duty to see this job through.

It
would appear that the task of finding/rescuing Alli will have to be done by
others.

What’s To Like...

There’s action, more action, and no slow
spots. Eric van Lustbader hops between
three main storylines – which we’ll call “Nona-Leonard-Alan”,
“Jack-Annika-Dyadya”, and “Alli-Vera” – and it is easy to keep track of which
is which. The characters tend to be
black or white but rarely gray, yet in fairness, a bunch of them flip from
white to black and vice versa. Also, a
lot of them – both the good guys and the bad guys – get killed off, which I
think makes the story more realistic.

Father Night is book 4 in the Jack McClure
series. I haven’t read the first three,
and this is one of those books where I felt I was missing a lot by not reading
the earlier books. The author does fill in
some of the backstory, but it’s in piecemeal fashion. Still this is a standalone novel, with a teaser at
the end for book 5, Beloved Enemy.

The
color-flipping characters make for plenty of intrigue, and there are a number
of mysteries and enigmas to entertain you, most notably the “spirit” of
Jack’s dead daughter Emma, several sets of identical twins, the uber-secret
“3-13”, “KWIFA”, and “Ashur had a little
horse”. OTOH, the evil Nazi scientist
with his evil Nazi experiments is an overused plot device, and the President of
the United States attending a clandestine meeting in a Walmart parking lot is
just not believable.

Kewlest New Word. . .

Tony(adj.)
: fashionable among wealthy or stylish people; posh.

Others
: Scrim (n.); Corniche (n.)

Excerpts...

The General
regarded Waxman with carefully concealed distaste. He seemed pale and weak, unfit for anything
outside a well-ventilated room, but, as he had said, they all had their roles
to play, all of them. Each brought a
different expertise to the enterprise.
They were bound not by friendship, but by need. Better by far than friendship, the General
judged. It was unthinkable to betray someone
you needed.(pg. 18)

“My enemies are
extremely determined.”

Kurin turned to
him. “What, now you’re trying to talk me
out of helping you?”

“We simply want
you to be aware of the possible consequences of sheltering us,” Annika said.

Kurin spread his
hands. “But you see, sheltering is what
we do. Without that, what are we? A group of freaks, performing for the yokels.”(pg. 122)

“I don’t believe this. How the fsck did I land in a Kafka novel?” (pg. 168)

Unfortunately,
what Father Night lacks is a coherent and
suspenseful plotline, and all the thrills, spills, and plot devices can’t cover
this up. When the dust settles and
bodies bleed out, the reader has to ask “What was accomplished?” And the answer, sadly, is “Not much.” There was a sinister plan, but the bad guys
aborted it themselves. Our evil Nazi scientist is stopped, but his nefarious
work remains intact. All of the Evil
Forces are still functional, despite some casualties.

There were too many WTF moments and they often felt contrived and/or pointless. Emma-the-ghost shows up several times, but
seems capable of giving only pep-talk counsel. Alli and Jack have secret “code phrases”
which can be used in a crisis. One of
them means “I’ve hidden something useful
somewhere. Go find it.” Yeah, that’s gonna be real helpful when the
baddies are chasing you through a warehouse.

The
endings (there
are two of them) felt rushed and WTF. A crack kill-team with superior weaponry and
the element of surprise can take out a whole cadre of Secret Service agents,
but not a couple of relatively inexperienced girls. Wow.
Similarly, Jack succeeds against his highly-trained opponents with
uncanny ease.

6½ Stars.
I came away feeling like Eric van
Lustbader’s main purpose for Father Night
was to move some of his recurring characters around so as to set up the next
book. Other than that, there’s lots of action, but very
little substance. Yet who knows how much
I’m missing by not having read the first three books? Add 2 stars
if you are tackling the series in order.

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

The
25th-Century British Space Empire is facing utter ruin. A Ghast invasion of the planet Urn is
imminent, and Urn supplies the empire with its most valuable commodity. Tea.

Tea? Yes, tea. For it, and it alone, is responsible for the
very moral fiber of each British subject.
Cut off the supply, and the British Empire becomes just another tribe of
savages.

Someone has to be sent to resist the Ghastian hordes. Someone dashing. Someone resourceful. Someone …erm… expendable.

Someone like Captain Isambard Smith.

What’s To Like...

If
you read the first book in this series (reviewed here) and liked it, you’ll
enjoy God Emperor of Didcot just as
much. There’s lots of fighting, blood,
and insectoid gore, and about the same amount of jokes about pooping, peeing,
sex, and body parts. Somehow, Toby Frost
manages to keep it from getting boringly repetitive. There really aren’t any slow spots, and it
gushes with wit and humor.

All of Smith's crew are back, as well as a couple of the main baddies from the first
book. But there are also a bunch of new people
and races to meet, plus several new planets to visit, including the world of Suruk’s
people. Suruk has been away for
a while. Things have changed.

The
plotline is a bit more focused and a lot more epic this time around. But the humor still takes center stage. And despite the abundance of laughs and
snickers, a serious theme underlies the storyline: theocracies
are never good.

As
in any Space Opera, there is some sex and some cusswords. This is a standalone novel, although I happen to be reading the books in order. As always,
the standard “series caveat”
applies. The ending sets up the next
book, wherein the Lemming men of Yull apparently will be spotlighted.

Carveth leaned
over him and lifted the headphones away.
“Pink Zeppelin?” she inquired.

“Mordor Woman Blues,” Smith said. How’s things in the control room?”

“Dunno – I’m not
there, am I?” She looked at the
headphones. “I never got prog rock. Can’t see what’s so progressive about singing
about a wizard for half an hour, myself.
If you ask me, anyone stupid enough to set the controls for the heart of
the sun gets what he deserves.” (loc.
186)

He left the
kitchen. Another door branched off the
corridor; it seemed to lead to a lavatory.
He approached the door. There was
a sign on the door. It said, “Please
leave this toilet in the same state as you found it.”

How absurd. What kind of fool would find a toilet,
presumably needing a wee, and leave it still needing a wee?(loc. 3187)

Kindle Details...

God
Emperor of Didcot sells for $4.99 at Amazon, as do three of the
other four books in the series. For some
reason, Book 3, Wrath of the Lemming Men,
sells for $7.99.

“Isambard," Rhianna said, …, did you just try to protect me from a
dragon with a penknife?” (loc.
3352)

God Emperor of Didcot is an obvious spoof of the fourth
book in Frank Herbert’s Dune series, God Emperor of Dune. Here,
tea takes the place of spice; and sun dragons take the place of sand
worms. There are probably more tie-ins,
but thankfully I only read the first three Dune books before giving up on the
series.

The truth be told,
I thought Dune was fantastic; Dune Messiah was somewhat boring; and Children of Dune was absolute drudgery. I also read one of the spinoffs, Dune – Battle of Corrin, written by Brian Herbert
and Kevin Anderson, and which happens to be the first book review I ever posted on a blog. The review is here.

I have no idea what Toby Frost thinks of the Dune books, but any spoof of it is a
plus in my book, and I’m really enjoying his series
so far.

8½ Stars. The series has kept its freshness and clever humor through the first two books.
We’ll see if that extends to Book 3 as well.

Thursday, January 1, 2015

The world is coming to an end, and there’s
nothing to be done about it. The only
question is which unstoppable menace is going to deliver the actual coup de grace.

At
the top of the list is the ubiquitous and ever-falling black ash, which is
choking out all plant life and fouling all the water. Then there’s the mists themselves which are
lingering longer and have started killing people. Let’s not forget the thousands upon thousands
of koloss, an endless wave of big, brutal, undead killing machines. And last but not least, there’s Ruin Itself,
released unintentionally by Vin, and probably more dangerous than the other
three menaces combined.

The world needs a miracle. The
world needs a Hero of Ages.

What’s To Like...

The Hero of Ages
is the concluding volume in Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn
trilogy. The other two books in the
series are reviewed here and here), and there’s no let-up in the fighting, the politicking, and the end-of-the-world
drama here. Indeed, the whole series
showcases Sanderson’s masterful writing style and excellent storytelling.

The
chapters alternate with four different POV’s – Sazed’s, Spook’s, Vin/Elend’s,
and March’s. I like this structure. It makes for very few slow spots, and the storyline, while complex, is remarkably easy to follow.
The world-building is once again very detailed and convincing. Some new characters are blended in with the
surviving members of the gang of rebels.
All are richly developed, and none (with the possible exception of Ruin)
are pure black or pure white. Indeed,
quite a few characters seem to ‘lighten’ or ‘darken’ as the story progresses.

There
is a handy “Names and Terms” section at the back of the book; I used it quite often. This is not a standalone
novel, but Brandon Sanderson once again provides brief summaries of the first
two books. These are stashed at the
back of the book, but mentioned in the Table of Contents so that readers new to
the series can get quickly up to speed about what’s going on.

The
climax is simply spectacular – being somehow both entirely logical and yet utterly
unanticipated. I am in awe of the author’s
ability to avoid a lame or trite ending.
The storyline is completely wrapped up in a most satisfying manner. Brandon Sanderson did write one more book set
in the Mistborn world, The Alloy of Law, but
it takes place 300 years later, so I doubt it impacts this plotline.

Excerpts...

“You know,” Elend
added, “during those days when you refused to marry me, I constantly thought
about how strange you were.”

She raised an
eyebrow. “Well, that’s romantic.”

Elend
smiled. “Oh, come on. You have to admit that you’re unusual,
Vin. You’re like some strange mixture of
a noblewoman, a street urchin, and a cat.
Plus, you’ve managed – in our short three years together – to kill not
only my god, but my father, my brother, and
my fiancée. That’s kind of like a
homicidal hat trick. It’s a strange
foundation for a relationship, wouldn’t you say?” (pg. 239)

”Do you know why
I dislike men like you, Venture? Yomen finally asked.

“My insufferable
charm and wit?” Elend asked. “I doubt it’s
my good looks – but, compared to that of an obligator, I suppose even my face
could be enviable.”

Yomen’s
expression darkened. “How did a man like
you ever end up at a table of negotiation?”

“I was trained by
a surly Mistborn, a sarcastic Terrisman, and a group of disrespectful thieves,”
Elend said, sighing. “Plus, on top of
that, I was a fairly insufferable person to begin with. But, kindly continue with your insult – I didn’t
mean to interrupt.”(pg.
284)

“In the end they will kill
us, Elend said, voice loud, ringing in the cavern. “But first they shall fear us!” (pg. 701)

Perhaps
the most salient unique feature in the Mistborn series (and there are a lot of unique features here) is the role given to
Religion. Epic Fantasy and Religion are
generally an awkward fit. Most readers
would much prefer the dragon to be zapped into oblivion by a wizard’s spell than for the
heroes to pray it away .

Although
Religion plays a somewhat minor part in the first two books, it gets some
center-stage time in The Hero of Ages. I kept fearing that the story would degenerate
into some sort of preachy sermon by Sanderson, but to his credit, this never
occurs. Furthermore, no particular Religion
is heralded as being the One True Way.

Instead, Sanderson contrasts the concept of
Faith, inherent in any religion, with the Logic and Deductive
Reasoning that are the bedrock for any society that relies on rational thought processes. He seems to propose that the two can coexist.

The
reader can decide for himself whether he agrees with Sanderson's hypothesis. To his credit, he tackles the difficult Fantasy/Religion
issue with admirable skill. Nevertheless, I hope this doesn’t become a recurring theme in his novels.